Victim Blaming

I didn’t tell anyone until I was much, much older. I was 17 and about to leave the country. I went to confession because I was afraid that if the plane crashed, I’d go to hell for having sex before marriage. We’ve already dealt with the “transgressions” I initially believed were sending me to Hell. I was a zealous kid.

The priest I confessed to was adamant in telling me I had done nothing wrong, that nothing was my fault, but the fact that at 8 years old, in the 1980’s, I was afraid I had done something wrong when a group of older boys hurt me should really say something about the way I was raised.

This isn’t just an American problem, although it is a huge problem in the United States to see children as culpable for sexual abuse.

Now, in Britain, a court has made comments that a 13-year old girl who was raped was a “sexual predator.”